The Old Vicarage

Ivor Markman

Elize Kietzmann, who grew up in Alice, was 10 years old when, encouraged by her mother’s support, she baked her first chocolate cake.

She was really excited when it was finished and couldn’t wait to show her masterpiece to her mother.

The cake was duly placed on the pantry shelf and impatiently she awaited the arrival home back home of her mother.

When she finally arrived Elize raced to the front gate to break the news of her latest achievement.

Excitedly the two of them went to view the prized confectionery but when they opened the pantry door they discovered the dog had taken it upon himself to be the first to taste it.

The fate of the poor pooch remains undisclosed.

Over the years Elize maintained her interest in baking and cooking and whenever she lays her hands on a good recipe book you can be assured it will be read and the tasty sounding recipes tried.

At one stage she was into making fruit and wedding cakes as well as the appropriate icing decorations.

Later in her life Elize married Gary and the couple moved to Durban where she worked for 22 years at a firm of chartered accountants.

Eventually she tired of the 27 km trip every day between Durban and Kloof and so in 1997 she resigned and started a gift business with “gift wrapping and things like that”.

Then she started a little tea garden at a nursery in Assegai, in the Hillcrest area.

“That was my first commercial venture into baking. I made everything, meals, lunches, the works,” said Elize.

For three months all she did was cater for the tea garden.

“I (then) joined a friend and I managed her tea garden in Kloof, which was just five kilometres away from home. Then I started baking for a home industry in Hillcrest called What's Cooking?” she said.

“In 2004 we came to Bedford and started at the Manse.

Closed for the 2016 Festival

MOUTHWATERING DELIGHTS: Elize Kietzmann provides a fabulous and tasty range of tea-time snacks at the Old Vicarage.

WHAT A DISH: If you think this mixed vegetable dish looks good, wait till you try it.

While running the Manse B&B, Elize and a colleague, Gaye Squire, who made frozen meals, joined forces and took their overflow foods to dominee Rudi Swanepoel’s morning market at the Ou Waenhuis which was held on the last Saturday of every month. http://ivormarkman.wix.com/bedford-garden-fest#!rev-rudi-swanepoel/c114e

After one year Lilette van den Bergh and Michelle Basson opened the Village Farm Stall, referred to by some as the Padstaal, and approached the two.

They wanted to know if they were interested in supplying the shop with home industry goods such as pastries, biscuits and cakes.

This arrangement lasted until July 2011 at which stage Elize decided to go it alone.

“Now I'm doing it from home, for my own account.

“From home I do private orders for in town customers and bake for Lana Blom at Eaglehout. http://ivormarkman.wix.com/bedford-garden-fest#!eaglehout/c1r3d

“I do her chocolate cakes, chocolate broulaard and her biscuits. For the Padstaal once a week I bake their apple crumbles, and all their biscuits,” said Elize.

“All the stuff was on commission at the Padstaal. She's a friend and I helped her and it was an outlet.

“From being on the shelf people see it.

“My name is on my stuff, not the cakes, only the biscuits, and was labeled The Old Vicarage, Bedford, with my telephone number and name,” she said.

However, getting up early every morning to bake became more of a hassle than it was worth, so eventually Elize decided to stop baking for the outlet, giving her more time for herself.

“I spin three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I go for long walks and then I come back and start up at about nine o'clock in the morning and I want to be finished by lunchtime.

“If people want orders they know they have to place them long in advance so that I can plan my day because Wednesday is a free day, I go to my Bible study group.

“I have book clubs and want time to visit friends, to spend time in my garden and to walk my dog.

When asked which part of cooking she enjoyed the most, Elize burst out laughing and said “Tasting!”.

Even though she has help and bakes cookies in bulk, she still sometimes runs out of stock.

“I do run out of biscuits because they sell so fast, the ginger nuts are very popular. There are other things like crunchies and shortbread but they are quick to bake.

“I can bake them in the evening or in the morning and deliver them the same day

“Everything is hand-made and rolled. I don't have big industrial machines. “You know, when I've baked a cake and it's nicely iced and somebody comes back and says ‘Hoo, your chocolate cake is so moist, it's the best I've tasted in a long time!’ it's an achievement, it's satisfaction.

“That's what I enjoy, I just love having people around, that's why once a month, when they have the morning market, I enjoy doing the cooking,” said Elize.